The Constitutional Court unanimously has rejected the Portuguese government's pension cutting plans, citing a violation of the principle of trust in Article 2 of the Constitution.
 
The court has put the government in another budgetary hole as Passos Coelho’s regime wanted a 10% cut of the gross amount of pensions and in their overall value to save the exchequer approximately €728 million next financial year, as in the 2014 budget.

The Bank of Portugal reported today that the total value of bouncing cheques issued in 2013 to the end of November was €633 million.

According to the always cheerful December Statistical Bulletin published by the Bank of Portugal, both the number of checks that were returned for lack of money and the total amount, actually fell in the first ten months of 2013 compared to the same period of 2012.

Moving the clock backwards, Spain is to reduce women’s ability to access abortions.

A more restrictive abortion law is to be introduced, the Spanish justice minister announced.

A GNR officer was found dead in the early hours of Friday at the GNR station in Tavira.

The young man, 25, used his own service weapon to shoot himself at between 06.00 and 07.00am when he was alone at the station.

Wensleydale cheese has been awarded official protection by the European Union.

The Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status means that no producer outside the designated area can call a cheese Yorkshire Wensleydale.

Designers in Sweden claim to have created crockery which is self-cleaning.

Cellulose pulp is used as the base. It is pressed into a heated mould. After its shape has been formed, it is coated with a wax which has been dissolved in carbon dioxide at a high temperature.

Hotel occupancy in the Algarve during the New Year festivities should be identical to 2012 as the 1st of January falls on a Wednesday and because the Portuguese continue to suffer from a distinct lack of spending money, according to the regional association of hoteliers’ president.

The often gloomy Elidérico Viegas said today that the year-end numbers are expected to be more or less identical to last year’s, but people will come for shorter stays as New Year’s Eve is on a Tuesday so people will not be staying on over a weeekend.

Subir Lall , head of the IMF mission to Portugal warned today in an interview with the Financial Times that in Portugal the effort must continue but that the IMF-agreed programme of ‘adjustments’ for Portugal’s economy will take another 10 to 15 years to be completed and must be done on its own and without more external help, warned Lall.

The IMF boss said that the distortions in Portugal’s economy have accumulated over decades and that therefore it is unrealistic to expect that they could be sorted out during the three years of the current adjustment programme, or that reforms successfully could be imposed from the outside.